Study of Water States in Different Hydrated and Consolidated Clay Using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present work was to test low-resolution NMR to characterize and quantify the state of water in some clay materials such as illite, montmorillonite, and bentonite with water content and in a compacted state. Low-field ¹H-NMR spectroscopy (0.54 T) was used to determine the most mobile fraction of water in different types of clay materials by analyzing free induction decay (FID) and Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) relaxation curves at 20°C, ?7°C, and ?25°C. Results have shown that a fast exchange occurs between the first bound monolayer of water and the following ones for illite, montmorillonite, and bentonite; a multiexponential decay of some CPMG relaxation curves was also observed. FID measurements at ?25°C showed that 83% of the water in illite (41% water content), 44% in montmorillonite (31% w.c.), and 52% in bentonite (27% w.c.) is frozen at this temperature. Treatment of signals obtained with bentonite compacted in capillaries (28% w.c.) was complicated by a signal coming from the capillaries themselves and an increase in internal magnetic field gradients, which led to a dual quantification whose most likely result is 39% of freezable water.